After Louis Le Prince's mysterious disappearance, dozens of imitators sprang up to take advantage of the missing inventor's machine; the most notorious of these was Thomas Edison. Yes, that Thomas Edison; despite his reputation as the "Wizard of Menlo Park", Edison's main path to inventing was by stealing patents, or generally copying the ideas of more skilled inventors and taking credit for them (the lightbulb, the phonograph, and various electric technologies were all the product of this). He was a ruthless businessman, and one of the first things he did with his lesser copy of Le Prince's technology was crank out crap with it.
You have seen Le Prince's films, and how (despite their briefness) how clear they are, and how the eye can perceive every detail, frame by frame; you will now see Edison's first attempt, made just two years later, entitled Monkeyshines:
Bit of a misleading title, no? Not only is there nothing exciting about the footage, but the first clip is nearly impossible to make out!
We will soon see Edison's next venture into film, but, for now, let's say that his first attempt did not score well.
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